The Key Characteristics Of Cloud Computing
Characteristics of Cloud computing has transformed the way organizations access and utilize technology resources. By providing on-demand access to computing power, storage, and applications over the Internet, the cloud enables unprecedented agility, efficiency, and innovation.
In this post, we will provide an in-depth overview of the essential characteristics that define cloud computing and set it apart from traditional IT models. Understanding these key traits allows organizations to fully leverage the benefits of the cloud.
Definition of Cloud Computing
Before diving into the specific characteristics, let’s quickly define cloud computing.
Cloud computing refers to the on-demand delivery of IT resources such as computing power, database storage, applications, and other services over the Internet. Instead of having to build and maintain expensive computing infrastructure in-house, organizations can leverage the economies of scale of cloud providers to access best-in-class technology on an as-needed basis.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as having five key characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. We’ll explore each of these in detail throughout this article.
Overview of Key Components: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
There are three main cloud computing service models that can exhibit these essential characteristics:
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provides access to fundamental computing resources such as servers, storage, and networking. Organizations have control over the operating systems, applications, etc. but the cloud provider owns and maintains the underlying infrastructure. Examples include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) gives organizations access to a cloud-based environment for developing, testing and managing applications without having to build the underlying infrastructure. The provider manages the infrastructure and middleware while organizations control the applications. Examples include AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service, and Heroku.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivers complete software applications over the cloud on a subscription basis. Organizations do not manage the infrastructure or platform but can configure limited application settings. Examples include Google Workspace, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Slack.
Now let’s explore the key characteristics of cloud computing in more detail:
Scalability and Elasticity
A fundamental advantage of the cloud is the ability to scale resources up or down on demand. Cloud computing exhibits:
- Scalability
Scalability refers to the ability to expand or increase computing resources to meet increased demand. Instead of having to procure new physical servers each time compute needs grow, organizations can instantly scale capacity by provisioning additional cloud servers with a few clicks. Cloud platforms make it easy to implement auto-scaling policies that automatically add or remove capacity based on utilization levels. This enables maintaining performance even during traffic spikes. - Elasticity
In addition to scalability, cloud computing also provides elasticity. This refers to not only scaling up resources when needed but also scaling them down when demand decreases.
By releasing unneeded resources, organizations only pay for the computing power they currently require. This is a key benefit compared to on-premises infrastructure which often remains underutilized. The ability to dynamically match resources with real-time organizational needs optimizes both performance and costs.
On-Demand Self-Service
A core advantage of the cloud is enabling users to provision computing power and other IT resources instantly on-demand without requiring human interaction from the service provider.
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Definition and Significance
The on-demand self-service characteristic refers to the user’s ability to unilaterally provision cloud computing capabilities without needing approval from the service provider.
This automates and accelerates access to resources, allowing much greater speed and flexibility. Organizations can scale capacity, services, and applications up or down as needed without delays in coordinating with IT departments.
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Provisioning and Management
Cloud platforms provide web-based user portals and APIs that allow organizations to manage their cloud environments with point-and-click simplicity. Resources like adding virtual machines, storage, or new applications can be instantly deployed on-demand.
Administrative tasks such as user access controls, security policies, and software updates can be easily performed by organizations themselves, reducing reliance on the cloud provider. Usage metering and billing are fully automated.
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Benefits
The self-service capabilities unleashed by the cloud enable organizations to achieve greater agility. Development teams can quickly provision new infrastructure to test ideas and innovations without extended procurement cycles. Organizations also gain the flexibility to experiment with new workloads and applications to support evolving business needs.
By putting resource controls in the hands of end users, IT bottlenecks are removed. Organizations can react dynamically to market changes rather than being constrained by traditional capital-intensive IT models.
Broad Network Access
A foundational aspect of cloud computing is providing access to services and resources over the network from a wide range of client platforms and devices.
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Importance of Broad Network Access
By leveraging the internet as the cloud delivery network, services can be accessed globally from anywhere a network connection exists. This enables the mobility and ubiquity that defines cloud computing.
Resources and applications are available across locations, systems, and devices – data centers, office desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, etc. Users can start a task in one place and finish it in another with seamless access.
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Accessibility from Various Devices and Locations
Cloud providers leverage standard network protocols to expose services across the broadest spectrum of client platforms such as web browsers, mobile apps, and enterprise APIs. Support for open standards and RESTful interfaces eliminates device and location lock-in.
This broad network access crucially enables a distributed and mobile workforce. Employees can securely collaborate and access corporate resources from any device or location with internet connectivity.
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Enabling Collaboration, Productivity, and Remote Work
By providing ubiquitous access independent of device and location, cloud computing enables unprecedented collaboration and productivity. Teams scattered across the globe can simultaneously work on projects with seamless access to shared cloud docs, data, and applications. Enabling remote work expands talent pools and allows employees flexibility in how and where they work.
Broad network access will continue serving as a foundation for cloud adoption. As emerging 5G cellular networks improve speeds and reduce latency, the possibilities for cloud services accessed anywhere will grow even further.
Resource Pooling
An important economic benefit of the cloud stems from its use of resource pooling:
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Explanation of Resource Pooling
With resource pooling, cloud providers serve multiple organizations from a common pool of shared physical and virtualized computing resources. These resources include servers, storage, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
The cloud provider combines the spare capacity contributed by each user into a large pooled set of resources that can be dynamically allocated on demand.
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Benefits of Shared Computing Resources
By pooling resources across a base of users, cloud platforms achieve much higher utilization rates compared to dedicated on-premises environments.
The cloud provider can run fewer physical servers but with each server hosting multiple virtual machines supporting different users. This sharing model allows assigning resources to where demand exists, increasing efficiency.
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Maximizing Resource Utilization and Reducing Costs
Because capacity can be statistically multiplexed across large numbers of users, resource pooling allows much more efficient utilization. Less excess capacity sits unused compared to dedicated infrastructure. By maximizing utilization across the shared pool, cloud providers can pass on economies of scale savings to customers. Organizations using a small fraction of a server’s capacity still gain the cost benefits of the cloud provider managing that server as part of a large pool.
This dynamic shared model allows cloud computing to be more agile and cost-efficient than traditional computing.
Rapid Elasticity and Provisioning
Enabling on-demand access to computing resources requires the ability to rapidly scale capacity both up and down. Cloud computing exhibits:
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Importance of Rapid Elasticity
Rapid elasticity refers to the ability to dynamically and quickly increase or decrease resources to align with fluctuating demand. This provides flexibility and supports the on-demand, pay-as-you-go model of the cloud.
If new processing power or storage is required immediately to manage a spike in traffic, additional cloud servers can be automatically spun up within minutes. When activity diminishes, these resources can be shut down to stop incurring charges.
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Dynamic Provisioning and De-Provisioning
To support rapid scaling, cloud platforms provide programmatic interfaces that automate the provisioning and de-provisioning of resources. Capacity can be increased or decreased via simple API calls.
Pre-defined scripts, configuration management tools, and integration with third-party automation tools make dynamically modifying cloud environments simple and fast.
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Accelerating Innovation and Time-to-Market
The agility fostered by rapid elasticity accelerates innovation by removing delays associated with procuring and deploying new infrastructure. Development teams can quickly prototype new ideas and applications leveraging cloud resources that can be retired once the project is done.
New products and services can be rapidly brought to market leveraging cloud platforms that allow scaling to support user demand. Creating these offerings using traditional data centers would be prohibitively slow and expensive.
Reliability and Fault Tolerance
For mission-critical applications, cloud platforms provide assurances of continued availability and data integrity:
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Ensuring Reliability in the Cloud
While migrating systems to the cloud inherently introduces new risks, leading cloud providers implement comprehensive reliability and redundancy mechanisms. Downtime can cripple revenue and productivity, so cloud vendors aim for extremely high reliability and uptime.
Platform architectures are designed for fault tolerance with no single points of failure. Disk drives, servers, and network links feature built-in redundancy and automated failover. Cloud data centers contain uninterruptible power supplies and backup generators. Extensive monitoring and automation ensure potential issues are identified and mitigated promptly.
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Redundant Infrastructure and Disaster Recovery
Cloud platforms achieve resilience through geographically distributed infrastructure. Services and data are replicated across multiple data centers in separate availability zones to guard against localized failures or disasters. If an outage disables one zone, automated processes initiate failover to another zone with no interruption in service. Many clouds also allow for defining preferred disaster recovery sites and cross-region replication.
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High Availability with Minimal Downtime
Leading cloud providers commit to very high service level agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing 99.99% uptime or better for core infrastructure. Architectural best practices combined with extensive redundancy allow for delivering on these promises of availability.
While occasional brief outages are still inevitable, the automated recovery capabilities built into cloud platforms minimize downtime. For mission-critical systems, cloud infrastructure offers resilience that matches or exceeds most on-premises environments.
Cost Management and Optimization
The pay-as-you-go pricing models of cloud computing can significantly lower costs compared to traditional on-premises IT infrastructure:
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Cost Optimization Benefits
By eliminating capital expenses associated with purchasing physical servers and data center facilities, organizations can reduce IT costs substantially. The ability to pay for only the capacity used, down to the second, allows close alignment of spending with actual organizational needs.
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Shifting from Capital Expenses to Operating Expenses
Procuring new infrastructure traditionally requires major capital outlays followed by years of depreciation. Migrating systems to the cloud exchanges those big capital expenditures for much smaller operating expenses distributed evenly over time. Spending shifts from upfront capital costs to ongoing operating costs as a subscription. This allows more predictable budgeting while delivering advanced technology on demand.
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Economies of Scale
Because cloud platforms pool resources across a massive user base, the economies of scale enable them to offer usage-based pricing far below what most organizations could achieve on their own. Organizations leverage the shared infrastructure while only paying a tiny fraction of the cost.
Cloud providers can also negotiate lower costs for energy, bandwidth, etc., and pass those savings on to customers. On-demand resources eliminate paying for unused capacity when demand is low.
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Eliminating Maintenance and Management Costs
The cloud removes expenses associated with maintaining data center infrastructure like power, computer cooling, and floor space. Leveraging cloud platform services also eliminates the costs of managing servers, updating software, and provisioning storage.
Cloud providers handle all infrastructure maintenance, security patches, and software updates behind the scenes. Organizations can re-direct IT personnel to focus on innovation rather than server management.
Security and Compliance
While security is a common concern with cloud adoption, cloud platforms provide state-of-the-art security capabilities exceeding most on-premises environments:
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Addressing Cloud Security Concerns
Leading cloud providers invest heavily in advanced security given their role as trusted custodians of customer data. They recruit elite security teams and leverage industry best practices to protect infrastructure. Features like encryption, network security, access controls, user authentication, and rigorous testing capabilities help safeguard cloud environments.
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Built-in Encryption, Access Controls, and Authentication
Cloud platforms provide capabilities to encrypt sensitive data at rest in storage and also in transit over networks. Granular identity and access management controls restrict unauthorized access. Multi-factor authentication ensures that only approved users gain access.
Security monitoring, logging, and auditing provide visibility into account activity. Automated tools help identify and respond to threats.
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Regulatory Compliance and Certifications
Public cloud providers adhere to industry compliance frameworks like SOC, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, ISO and others. Many undergo rigorous third-party audits to certify compliance with these standards. Customers can leverage these assurances to satisfy regulatory requirements.
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Shared Responsibility Model
With Infrastructure-as-a-Service, the cloud provider handles lower-level physical security, networking, and infrastructure maintenance. Customers are responsible for properly using cloud security features to protect the information and applications they put in the cloud.
Real-World Cloud Computing Use Cases
Let’s look at some examples of innovative organizations leveraging the power of the cloud:
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Mobile Apps
Companies like Uber, Lyft, and Spotify provide popular mobile apps on a massive scale. By leveraging cloud platforms like AWS, they can support millions of users while only paying for the computing resources needed at any moment in time. The cloud allows these apps to achieve global reach with limited upfront investment.
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Media Streaming
Cloud computing enables Netflix, YouTube, and other streaming services to reliably deliver high-definition video to vast audiences. By leveraging on-demand cloud infrastructure instead of owning data centers, these companies can cost-effectively scale to meet fluctuating demand as viewership spikes and ebbs.
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Big Data and Analytics
The New York Times leverages cloud data warehousing to analyze over 1.8 billion weblogs to gain insights into content consumption patterns. The elastic scalability of cloud platforms allows flexible scaling of big data processing to efficiently handle terabytes of unstructured data.
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Remote Collaboration
Pixar Animation Studios utilizes cloud computing to enable remote collaboration for developing film s. By moving storage and compute workloads to the Google Cloud Platform, artists globally can access massive project files and quickly iterate without standing up expensive on-premises infrastructure.
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Internet of Things(IOT)
General Electric uses Azure IoT services to collect and process data from industrial equipment and leverage insights to minimize unplanned downtime. Azure provides the real-time analytics and automation capabilities required to support millions of IoT sensors and devices transmitting data.
Conclusion
This article provided an in-depth look at the key characteristics that define cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. We also explored the benefits provided by public cloud platforms within IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models.
It is clear that cloud computing enables unprecedented business agility, efficiency, and innovation by delivering computing as an instantly consumable, on-demand service. Organizations can leverage the cloud to focus IT resources on delivering business value rather than just “keeping the lights on”.
Cloud adoption does introduce new risks around security, privacy, and vendor dependencies which must be evaluated. However, leading public cloud providers offer best-in-class security capabilities and demonstrated reliability that meets or exceeds most on-premises environments.
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